Ela Gandhi lauds Mauritius as model country for world

Ela Gandhi, granddaughter of India’s Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, said that the work in the fields of education and culture, coupled with measures undertaken to eradicate poverty, make Mauritius a model for the world.

According to her, Mauritius is the second country in the world to provide free tertiary education after Sri Lanka. “Mauritius should serve as a model for the world,” she added.

She was speaking with members of socio-cultural groups at an interactive session organised by GOPIO (Mauritius) at Happy Rajah restaurant, Quatre Bornes, on Sunday.

The event was attended by Indian high commissioner to Mauritius Madhusudan Ganapathi, minister of Public Infrastructure, National Development Unit, Land Transport and Shipping Anil Bachoo and minister of Arts and Culture Mookhesswur Choonee.

“Mauritius is setting up a message of unity for humanity by working together with religious groups, despite all the divisions in the world. So why can’t we do it across the world? There should not be ignorance in a community. If you do not have ethics, knowledge is useless. I am glad that the work set up by Gandhiji is being taken up with more vigour today than in the past,” she stated.

Gandhi believes that technical and professional aspects of education are necessary but stressed that values are also important.

She underlined that she has learnt a lot from Mauritius since her arrival and is very happy with Mauritian hospitality.

Ela Gandhi will also host the 5th Memorial Lecture Series on the theme, ‘Tangore and Gandhi: Raising the Spirit of Responsible Patriotism’ on Monday at the Rabindranath Tagore auditorium at Ilot.